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Bob Arbogast
Robert "Bob" Arbogast (April 1, 1927, Bellingham, Washington, USA – March 21, 2009, Fresno, California, USA) was an American radio broadcaster, voice actor, and television host. Bob went to Chicago's WMAQ where he worked with Pete Robinson from 1951-53 (using as a theme song a charming version of Sicilian Tarantella played on an ocarina) before moving to Los Angeles for a time, then returning to Illinois where he worked at WEAW in Evanston, Illinois. Then he went to New York where he wrote for two shows, one featuring Tom Poston and another Peter Marshall. Then he worked at San Francisco's KSFO and KFRC. He later worked at many stations in Los Angeles including KMPC from 1962–67, KLAC in 1967, KFI in 1968, and KGBS in 1969. At KMPC, he wrote for Dick Whittinghill and Gary Owens, and he wrote with and was the partner of Jack Margolis at KLAC and KGBS. Their radio talk show at KLAC had the highest rating of any radio program in LA history up until that time (and perhaps still), with a 14.5 percent share of the audience. Due to a concentrated letter-writing campaign, they were fired for their objection to the Vietnam war and their pro-choice stance. They may have been among the last fired due to the McCarthy dealings of the 1950s. The pair also hosted a TV show on KTTV for a while. Arbogast created the Question Man in Kansas City in 1951 and used it on the Poston Show in NY. It was later a feature on The Steve Allen Show, to the surprise of Bob and Steve - as Allen acknowledged in his book, The Question Man. The concept lived on in Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent and Jeopardy!. Arbogast had numerous screen credits for cartoons and commercials and had appeared on television shows and in movies. He did frequent uncredited voiceovers for Sesame Street segments. He was the voice for the original "What would you do for a Klondike Bar?" advertising campaign and of the animated Granny Goose for the Granny Goose potato chip campaign (What is Granny's secret? I won't say...") Among hundreds, Arbogast is perhaps most famous for his voicings of General G.I. Brassbottom, Noodles Romanoff, and Ma Ramjet in the Roger Ramjet cartoon, Jack Wheeler in the Hot Wheels cartoon, and Snogs on the Hanna-Barbera animated series Monchhichis. He also voiced several characters in the Hanna-Barbera series The Jetsons. Not to be forgotten were Arbo's stylings of Barry Bear and Drummy Drummer, popular seventies pull-string toys - "I'm Barry Bear, like to meet my paw?" "I'm Drummy Drummer. I went to school at the school of hard knocks." - and his renditions of hamburgers in early McDonald's commercials. While in elementary school at Franklin Avenue in Los Angeles, his son John was scolded when asked by his teacher, Mrs. Horowitz, what his father does for a living. John replied, "he is a bear." Refusing to recant, a meeting with the teacher, principal, and Bob resulted in free hot dogs on "Hot Dog Wednesday" for John for a year. John also has many voices still running on Sesame Street. Category:Actors from USA